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The Ministry of Health reported that there are at least 58 suspected cases of covid-19 reinfection, and that they are being investigated in nine states, in Brazil. The statement came hours after the country confirmed the first Brazilian patient to have a laboratory-confirmed reinfection of the disease.
“So far, we have 58 suspected cases [de reinfecção] they were notified by state health departments. In these cases, the person had their first confirmed infection and what needs to be confirmed now is whether there was reinfection, “explained Greice Madeleine Ikeda do Carmo, director of the Department of Strategic Health Surveillance, during a press conference held tonight.
The 37-year-old doctor from Rio Grande do Norte, who was infected twice by the virus, will be accompanied to help scientists get more details about how the second infection occurs. It was the first confirmed case of infections by two different strains of the new coronavirus in the country.
The first collection on June 23, in João Pessoa, showed the line B.1.1.33; that of October 13, also in the capital of Paraíba, pointed to B.1.1.28. This was essential to confirm that it is a new case and not a reappearance of the virus, for example.
The scientist responsible for the viral sequencing that confirmed the first case of reinfection, Paola Resende, from Fiocruz (Fundación Oswaldo Cruz), says she believes that it is a patient who did not generate the necessary immunity to escape a new infection in a short time. space of time. .
Serological analysis
Despite classifying the event as still rare, she mentions that there is no way for a person to know if they acquired immunity after having contracted and cured from Covid-19. Today, in addition to the case of the doctor in Rio Grande do Norte, there are several other cases under investigation.
“To have proof of reinfection it is necessary to meet all the established criteria. Our group participates in the WHO (World Health Organization) reinfection study group and some criteria are being adopted: having more than 90 days between an episode and another, the symptoms must be related, the RT-PCR examination needs to be confirmed in another laboratory. We had these criteria to confirm reinfection, in addition to a negative sample between the two episodes, “he says.
The scientist explains that the reinfection of the Potiguar doctor occurred with a different lineage than the first time. However, this does not mean that the virus has mutated to the point of creating different types, as in the case of dengue, which has four different serotypes.
“I strongly believe that this reinfection is more related to the host’s ability to produce immunity than it is to circulating strains. However, as it evolves over time, we will need to review and, if necessary, change the vaccine strain, such as we do with Influenza. With almost a year in circulation, the strains are still very similar to generate different responses. But genomic surveillance and complementary analyzes must be continuous, “he explains.
